The Fan-Built Bot was designed well in advance of the character's supporting
media being produced. And as tends to happen some divergence occurs when the
media catches up. Especially when the character is interpreted by an artist
such as Sarah Stone who has a distinct style which she brings to her
Transformers work. Hasbro's release couldn't try to line up with that, but
TakaraTomy had some extra time to tinker with it before releasing it in their
confusingly named Legends line.

For sake of better clarity, when necessary I'll use the prefix abbreviation
"LG" rather than say Legends so as not to confuse with the Generations Legends
price point. Because saying "Legends Windblade" could quickly become
misleading, especially given the third party effort along that very line...

Robot Mode

Physically there isn't much difference with LG Windblade versus the Hasbro
release. The joints don't behave significantly differently, though you may find
the knee hinges feel slightly different thanks to being painted where the
Hasbro version is bare plastic. But you're not going to find that Takara made
some revolutionary advancement on the toy with just the deco change because
Hasbro Windblade did pretty well on that regard to begin with. And the things
that weren't so great still remain there, like the awkwardly designed heels,
being a bit back-heavy, the shoulder armor always wanting to stay with the
bicep when the arms are moved. None of that has been changed. The hinges on the
heels might be a little bit stiffer, but the amount falls in what I'd consider
the margin of individual variation anyway, so I can't say this is really
representative of a difference across the production. Basically if you had
issues with how Windblade worked that weren't the product of actual defects,
the Takara release is most likely not going to fix that for you.

This sets out to fix the deco and do what it can to bring it more in line
with the comic book art. The color arrangement has been changed, mainly in
swapping positions of red and black areas on the body. Hasbro's black wings and
red pelvis and thighs have become red wings and pelvis, and black thighs. The
first two are plastic colors, while the last is brought about by comprehensive
paint coverage. This again leads to a painted knee hinge that may be seen to
slightly tighten that joint.

A secondary consequence of this switch finds the
shoulder socket on either arm changed to red, as well as the transformation
hinges. That has a solid benefit to the look of the robot mode by making the
entire area across the collar and shoulders red, where Hasbro's had black. The
space looks more filled out using the consistent color through there, and the
black painted stripes on the chest stand out more like accenting deco instead
of blending in with the surrounding black. The shoulder sockets are mostly
hidden by the armor covers, but some red stays visible on the upper half of the
bicep. It's less than ideal, though given the forearms are split between black
and red, it can pass as intentional styling.

In general terms there isn't a lot of new deco added to Windblade. The wings
have black sections, giving a nice effect and making them stand out more than
being either solid black did or solid red would have. There's some more large
areas of deco change that I'll go over when talking about the jet mode, but in
the meantime there's one other thing I want to highlight on the robot. The
position of a paint application on the forearm was changed. Hasbro's Windblade
has a blue band around the wrist, while Takara has the same blue applied at the
upper edge of the forearm "armor", and the wrists are left bare. This is a case
where I feel like Hasbro got it better. The blue was more prominent in the
wrist bands than the thin strip it takes at the top of the gauntlet, and seeing
the wrist unpainted makes it look like something is missing and unfinished. So,
these things done, the paint is very similar between versions otherwise. The
shins have the jet intakes in black, the feet are the same black and red style,
and the paint work on the torso is just about the same between them, the only
difference there being a little more of the red plastic being left unpainted
below the chest to modify the shape the armor has. That's basically it. Except
for the one thing that everyone actually cares about.

So let's talk about the face. When I reviewed Hasbro's Windblade, I
acknowledged that the face deco was very different from how Sarah Stone
interpreted the design in the comic art, but the sculpt underlying it wasn't
nearly as removed from that as it had initially seemed. And this proves out
that idea. The whole deco of the face and helmet is directly based off that
comic art, doing as much as it can with paint to make the face sculpt resemble
media produced after the toy was designed. In a way it's like going back to the
old days of Takara releases, where they used their later release to tweak
Hasbro's stuff to better reflect the show it came out of. That still happens on
occasion, but seeing how Windblade falls in that pattern is a happy trip of
nostalgia for me.

Right, so instead of silver, the base coat of the face is white, and it has
finer red lines that are a fully different shape from Hasbro's, and reflect
what was seen in the comic rather well. The sculpt of the face is different
enough from how Sarah drew Windblade's face that it's never going to look quite
the same. There's more contour and some lines that the white paint tends to
accentuate a bit more than was so with the silver. And in particular the shape
and relative size of the eyes is completely different which will be the main
thing keeping this apart from passing exactly like the comic appearance. At one
point it appeared a bit of the face outside the eyes was planned to be painted
blue to try to expand them and modify the shape, though it wasn't necessarily
to the benefit of the figure. That was dropped in any case, but we have rings
of bare black plastic around the eyes seemingly where the extra blue would have
been. That's another element in the face looking older than the way the comic
shows the character. I'm nitpicking a little maybe, but given the face is by
far the main selling point of this version, I feel a thoroughness is called
for. That said, I like the way the deco came off. It isn't a perfect
representation, but it reads so much more like what I was taught to expect
Windblade to look like, and the minor variances don't really matter that
much.

It's not just the face, either. Comic Windblade's helmet has much less
complicated decoration that the toy was sculpted with, and for this version
fewer details have been painted, with the rest being allowed to fade in to the
surrounding black plastic. This is much less obvious than the general treatment
on the face, but it's good attention to detail that finishes off the most
important changes on the figure. I will give one word of warning: this
Windblade ships in Vehicle mode, so there's no opportunity at all to make sure
there aren't paint flaws on the face before purchase, even if you can see a
selection in person. I recommend only purchasing this somewhere that will work
with you if you need to exchange a figure that might have a defective deco.

Transformation

The transformation isn't affected by the deco changes. Issues like the
forward wing edges not tabbing securely to the fuselage is in fact exactly the
same as the original release. The only thing I really found to feel any
different was the tail planes tabbing down a little better and the hands
grabbing underneath more smoothly. For the most part nothing is better or worse
in any really meaningful way.

Vehicle Mode

Hasbro Windblade was a largely black jet, while Takara's is mostly red. For
one thing that lets the shins blend a little more smoothly visually even
despite the toes sticking straight up. I'll always envy the alternate reality
that kept those able to fold down as was obviously the original design intent.
What this really highlights though is how interesting the jet can look and how
we didn't get such a clear picture of that with the black jet of the original
release. There's a section of fuselage that's black plastic, just behind the
cockpit and I really wish that was red as well. It's not the only spot of black
here, but it's the one that seems most out of place because of its positioning.
With it red you'd end up with a red-dominated jet with a black cockpit, tail,
and the leading edges of the wings. The black would become a focused accent
color because the layout would be solidly tied together. That could have even
been the intent but the piece in question may be unpaintable. Ultimately it's
one small knock against a deco that I think serves the vehicle really well.

The other big change is the jet's "face". Now Windblade was never portrayed
as if the nosecone and surrounding area were actually a face in vehicle mode,
but the shapes kind of lend to that idea, and I'll always remember and
appreciate the original Vehicons for having the living machine quality in their
vehicle modes that only makes sense for Transformers that haven't had to
disguise themselves ever. The white nosecone joins white stripes that extend
back on either side of the cockpit. Between them and the canopy are thin red
pinstripes and bigger yellow strips. I don't think it's weird to interpret this
like a face since it has qualities like a very simplified version of the robot
face deco. There's a visual connection between them, even if you'd end up
needing to maybe interpret the yellow as "eyes" which runs counter to the robot
face. I'll also grant I could be overthinking this point entirely. Oh, and
where Hasbro had a very pale yellow canopy, LG Windblade is dark blue. So dark
in fact that unless backlit at least a little bit it blends right in to the
black around it. It's really pretty when lit up the right way, though.

Accessories

There are some changes for these, though much less significant. The sword -
called Stormfall on the Hasbro packaging - has the same kind of deco with the
clear color, fading to colorless near the tip. But LG Windblade's Stormfall is
more pink instead of a shade closer to purple. That's the only difference; the
scabbard is just the same as is the deco on the grip and the colorless clear
turbine.

A notable improvement in looks is found on the fan-blade weapons stored on
the head. It's not fully painted in gold instead of having an unpainted clear
face that relied on seeing the gold paint through the other side. The
unfortunate downside to being fully painted is that I can't get it out now. No
level of force I'm willing to exert would even get it to start to move. It's
probably paint fused in. I'm really not that bothered about it. It was always
an interesting extra and offered a couple of neat poses, but it's not anything
I ever felt like was important to the use of the figure overall. I'm happy to
leave it stuck in the head - at least that way I'll never have to worry about
potentially losing it!

Closing Remarks

If you aren't particularly a fan of the Windblade comic, some of what this
release does probably won't matter to you very much. But this thankfully
doesn't come down to being something that will only appeal to people who got
trained to recognize Windblade a certain way well in advance of the toy's
original release. The robot's appearance is very little changed outside of
things that appeal to the comic fans, but for the most part what it does
outside of that helps the appearance. But for the general interest crowd, the
jet mode is probably where it's at and what will sell this ultimately. The jet
looks so much better taking on all this added red. It has a completely
different visual identity from the Hasbro release and makes so much better use
of the toy's design. Honestly, if you're not sure you want to pay the small
import premium just for the more accurate face, the major change to the vehicle
mode ought to justify the purchase handily. This is no minor deco tweak, you're
getting something very different.

Now I am a comic fan, and I was made to expect Windblade to look a certain
way, and this hits those marks for me. This is probably as good as I could hope
for without actual sculpt changes - and I probably would triple-dip on this is
some way or another a retooled comic accurate face version happened - and it
does so much more besides that. TakaraTomy Windblade is
Excellent on the Figurereviews.com Non-Numeric
Scale. They took a toy I already liked and just made it better with a
stereotypically Takara deco overhaul. Much like their release of Generations
Armada Starscream, it's one of those cases where the extra cost is justified
for what they're offering.